97: Boeing Model 10 GA-1A totally bonkers armoured triplane from 1923. The GA-1 sacrificed looking sensible or airworthy for maximum line of sight for its mounted machine guns and overpowered engines. Designed after the first instance of US government direct sponsorship in the 1910s, the ponderous airplane was intended to strafe ground troops while remaining immune to attack from the ground as well as from other enemy aircraft. It was so well armoured its five-ton weight proved excessive.The plane was difficult to fly, was unpopular with pilots, and in some tests needed more than half a mile of runway to achieve takeoff. All 10 were scrapped after 2 years, with none of the planes being part of an operational group after 1924. While unsuccessful, the design joins the top 100 as an example of the sheer chutzpah that Boeing would exhibit over the course of the century.

95. Boeing Model 400 XF8BA familiar looking multi-purpose fighter concept, intended to fight the long war in the Pacific that the US knew would surely take place if the Japanese did not surrender. The XF8B was the largest piston powered fighter plane developed by the USA during the 1940s, and was so named for having 8 roles, 5 styles of bombing and 3 air superiority roles.

The large wings featured outer sections which could fold vertically, while the fuselage incorporated an internal bomb bay and large fuel tanks; more fuel could be carried externally. The proposed armament included six 0.50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns or six 20 mm wing-mounted cannons, and a 6,400 lb (2,900 kg) bomb load or two 2,000 lb (900 kg) torpedoes. The final configuration was a large but streamlined design, featuring a bubble canopy, and a sturdy main undercarriage that folded into the wings.

It actually would probably have worked well if needed. Testing continued into 1947, but was cancelled in favour of jet designs.

94. If It Ain't Boeing I'm Not GoingA marketing slogan that's still trademarked but no longer in use, except by smug pilots on obscure airline forums and on fan merchandise. Airbus planes were safer worldwide until around 2002, when the reliability of Boeing airliners began to markedly increase as older designs were finally retired.

Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, but that alone doesn't make it true.

Quote from: Professor Bob Boblo

He had spent his whole life despised and hated for the mere triviality of wearing dresses and make-up despite possessing a (rather magnificent) penis, and this persecution had fostered within him both a desperate yearning to be loved and appreciated, and an iconoclastic desire to subvert and destroy the odious traditions on which society was built.

93: Boeing YC-14Another concept plane, the YC-14's oddly squat figure shows a cargo plane trying unconvincingly to pretend to be a helicopter or a jumpjet. Designed to replace the Hercules transport and use shorter runways, the first Boeing YC-14 flew on 9 August 1976. The YC-14 demonstrated the capability to carry the 109,200 lb M60 Patton main battle tank using its STOL arrangement engines, unmatched in a plane this size in the 1970s.The Boeing engineers were aware that NASA had carried out a series of "powered lift" studies some time earlier, including both externally-blown flaps, as well an upper-surface blowing (USB), an unusual variation. In the USB system the engine is arranged over the top surface of the wing, blowing over the flaps. When the flaps are lowered the Coandă effect makes the jet exhaust "stick" to the flaps and bend down towards the ground. USB remains an unusual engineering technique for achieving lift, and was only used by a couple of Tupolev production planes. The order was scrapped by the USAF in favour of a bigger and more conventional strategic aircraft.

Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, but that alone doesn't make it true.

Quote from: Professor Bob Boblo

He had spent his whole life despised and hated for the mere triviality of wearing dresses and make-up despite possessing a (rather magnificent) penis, and this persecution had fostered within him both a desperate yearning to be loved and appreciated, and an iconoclastic desire to subvert and destroy the odious traditions on which society was built.